The invention relates to a soldering iron of the type in which the solder is fed through the interior of the iron to the soldering tip, which is heated by a heating element in the soldering iron.
A problem with soldering irons of this type is that the heat from the heating element, which serves to heat the tip, spreads through the material of the soldering iron, thereby causing the solder to soften to an unwanted extent or even melt, before it reaches the tip of the iron, because the solder has a considerably lower melting-point than the material of which the iron itself is made. This affects the quality of the soldering process, and makes precise soldering difficult.
Attempts at eliminating this problem by means of insulating of the solder from the heating element have not been sufficiently efficient, because a sufficient insulation is not possible in the relatively small place which is available in a soldering iron. If, on the other hand, the soldering iron were to be bigger, in order to make sufficiently efficient thermal insulation of the solder from the heating element possible, the soldering iron would become less handy to operate.